Might & Magic IX.

I love Might & Magic VI - VIII but IX killed the franchise for me. Wrong vibe, terrible bugs. I tried X when it came out, but it is also a different game.

Evil Genius 2. I loved Evil Genius 1 as a kid. It was far from perfect and had a lot of bugs, but it was a blast. I'm fully aware there's a lot of rose tinted goggles going on for it in my mind. But I thought the new one would fix problems and be more enjoyable. It did improve on the first in a lot of ways, but it was so so grindy.

In EG1 you could send you minions into the world to steal money and complete missions (that gave points or loot, like stealing the Eifel Tower). I'm EG2, they kept this mechanic, but anyone you send to the world map is just gone. They cannot come back. This leads to just an annoying constant flow of recruiting more minions, training them to upgrade, and them being sent to the map forever to never return. It would perhaps be slightly better if you could increase the rate you recruit minions like the first game, but instead they always come at a constant rate and there is a button to recruit more but it's buried in a menu. So many things in this game are buried in a menu.

Another frustration, they added a feature to automatically tag enemy agents that come to your base (to be killed, captured, distracted, etc) but they're all under different research tiers. Why require the research at all? Right clicking agents and saying "tag for capture" is just pointless busy work. Even in the original you could hold control when you did it and it would flag the whole group. Not anymore. You can only tag one at a time.

There are just so many little things like this that made the game so annoying to play. I wanted to like it. But I just couldn't enjoy it. The new art style is worse, too. It keeps the spy fi aesthetic but it's much more cartoonish. The game is more diverse which is nice, the original was like all men. I also liked what they did with John Steele, the main antagonist more or less. Canonically you beat him and killed him but they pass on his mantle to new agents and train them to be like him. And they're relatively weak, but like a constant threat.

Castlevania Lord of Shadow 2. Loved the first one and 2 was just bad. I wish they would have kept it as a God of War clone, with stunning visuals, game play and music

Gonna be controversial but Monster Hunter World for me. Don't get me wrong, I liked the game a lot at first and put 100+ hours into it. But it marked the departure from the silly, cozy, slightly under-the-radar franchise to something that's just too big for my tastes. I feel like each entry is trying to top its predecessor in new mechanics, bigger maps and stuff and end up getting lost in the sauce.

I started playing on PSP with Freedom 2 and Freedom Unite and moved over to 3DS when the games came out for that. The games were never unpopular per se, especially in Japan where they've been a staple since the PSP days, but they always felt a little more niche and unknown. They felt more focused, more streamlined, tighter. All the new combat mechanics added in newer installments definitely help the fluidity of the gameplay and add a lot of fun and variety. But that's it for new additions that I'd miss when going back to older titles. These huge open-world-esque maps just don't cut it for me.

Rise would likely have been last MH that I could enjoy since it's a good mix of classic MH with good QoL features added in to make the game more modern, but even that one didn't quite catch my attention for too long.

I don't know, I feel like Monster Hunter kinda lots its charme in chasing industry trends of open world games and more realistic graphics and physics in favour of character, silliness, and focus.

Destiny. Played the heck out of 1, and 2 is just... Annoying. I still play, but I actively disuade people from picking it up.

It went from a mechanically fun game with garbage storytelling but amazing lore, to mechanically complex and hyper specialzed, still mostly garbage storytelling, and lore that is trying to constantly one up itself or nonexistent. The seasonal model was a mistake and it's grindy for the sake of money. It really took a terrible turn down sitcom alley of having the seasonal content need stakes, but also not really change anything drastic. So it just feels like tasks for the sake of tasks... Which it is. A neverending treadmill where grinding has only very short lived rewards.

Don't play many sequel games, so it's hard to say.

FF Cotw why in the everliving fuck put that idiot in the game. Sure you can make millions by putting CR7 in the game same as you can make 10 grand by sucking dicks for a 20 in an alleyway. I can't believe how many shit decisions they make and still have enough money to burn on it.

Loved MK 1 then 2 blew my mind 3 was good 4 blew my mind again. Then until 9 I didn't touch anything too goofy I haven't been able to play the single player much (of DA Deception and Armageddon) but didn't click anyway. MK9 was goated. Then MKX didn't liked it at all (cant handle a game with such bad animations). Loved 11 and now MK1 is like meh.

Wasn't a sequel but I used to love League until Yone and the healing meta. Sylas saved it for a while; like I love gimmick chars and a rebel to boost, sign me TF in. But all in all the BS balance the toxicity the lack of respect for my time, it was too much. Switched to WF and couldn't believe how chill it was.

My first experience with this was Last of Us. I wasn't expecting good things for part 2 after hearing things about hostile takeovers but killing off the main guy just ruined it for me.

Probably unpopular opinion but Prey is clearly on that list ! Not because the new game was bad, but they just took everything that was interesting and original in the first game, throw it away and just made it another doom-like game :/...

The original Prey wasn't a GOTY or whatever, it just felt different and something new and original... Something I liked and they just made a total reboot with nothing in common on what made prey original/interesting !